Cover Up

2008

Combining woods visual warmth and frankness with astartling sense of isolation, Bob Trotman conveys a variety ofnarratives about the masks and personas that are taken onwhen working within a competitive organization. Cover Up wasinspired by a scene from Sergei Eisensteins iconic 1925 filmThe Battleship Potemkin, in which mutinous crew membersare shrouded by a tarpaulin before facing a firing squad. Asin Eisensteins film, the shrouded figures of Cover Up couldrepresent sacrificial victims, those scapegoated to serve asa ritualistic purging of collective wrongdoing. The diminutivescale of the figures could signify the shame or denial of whatsecret thing has transpired and must remain hidden, or implysomething adolescent and underdevelopedchildren dressedin business attire playing a collective game of hideandseek.